When Disney closed its Star Tours ride in 2010 to make way for the new 3D version, fans met the change with mixed emotions, both lamenting the loss of a classic attraction and excited for the long-anticipated update. Though Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, the ride’s sequel, has been hugely popular at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, one fan found the need to keep the original alive in an impressive new format.

In time to help celebrate Star Tours’ 25th anniversary at Disneyland, independent filmmaker Gregory Noacco has recreated the original Star Tours ride in incredible detail, using 3-D computer graphics to once again make the attraction available for all to enjoy. It took more than 6 months of diligent labor to model and animate everything originally seen in the ride, including the loading area and Starspeeder 3000, Rex, the “first time” RX-24 pilot droid, and all the iconic scenes that were part of the ride’s film, such as the climactic Death Star battle, with R2-D2 helping to navigate throughout.

Produced independently from Disney and Lucasfilm, Star Tours Origins not only offers “Star Wars” fans a chance to once again embark on a hair-raising adventure past the Endor moon, but also to do it for the first time ever in 3-D. Much like Disney’s new Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, Noacco has used YouTube 3D to present his Star Tours Origins tribute with more depth than the original attraction.

So take the jump to light speed once more and enjoy Star Tours Origins:

Video: Star Tours Origins ultimate tribute (2-D version)

You can use the 3D button on the player below to cycle through different 3D options, including red/blue glasses, cross-eyed and side-by-side.

Video: Star Tours Origins ultimate tribute (3-D version)

(Did you catch our special thanks in the closing credits? I offered a little advice to Gregory as he neared completion of his project.)

To fully appreciate all the effort that Noacco made in creating Star Tours Origins, compare it to the actual ride by taking a virtual trip back to the real-life version of the original Star Tours in our own tribute video below, shot during its last flight at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Sept. 2010. (The ride starts at 2:26 into the video.)

Video: Star Tours final flight tribute at Walt Disney World with full ride

Star Tours Origins features all the memorable scenes from the original “Star Wars”-based ride. Here are a few highlights that should seem quite familiar:

You can still experience the original Star Tours in person at both Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland, though Tokyo has announced plans to close it on April 2, 2012 to be made over into the new Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, which is currently being enjoyed at Disneyland in California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida. No plans have been announced to change the ride in Paris, though it’s likely to happen within the next few years.

But the original ride, complete with iconic scenes, quotable lines, and classic characters, will now forever live online, not only through on-ride video, but now even more enjoyably through the ultimate tribute, Star Tours Origins.

Owner and Editor of Inside the Magic. Since growing up in Miami, Florida and ultimately moving to Orlando after college, Ricky has become an expert on Central Florida's many theme parks and attractions. He founded Inside the Magic in 2005.

Sean

Roddy Barros (MKCustodial)

Ricky, you still haven’t been able to see the podrace sequence? I forgot to share this story with you:

As you know, I just came back from our wonderful trip to the World, 12 years since I was there last, during the College Program. My wife loved it, and she now understands my love for Walt DIsney World! 😀 Anyway, we re at the Studios on that fateful Obama Day, so I figured we’d hit Star Tours first thing, since I figured the park would get crowded afterwards. I should’ve thought about doing the same thing for Toy Story Mania, but I digress. So we hit Star Tours, and I was telling my 5-year-old how there are several scenes that we could see, including the podrace. And he fixated on that, that’s the one he wanted to see the most. We ended up getting the Falcon beginning, the Hoth sequence, then Admiral Ackbar and the Naboo ending. We all loved it, but I could see he was disappointed. SO I told him we’d try to come back later in the day, maybe even during Extra Magic Hours, when it wouldn’t be too crowded and maybe we’d be able to see the podrace. If I had remembered you saying that you’ve seen everything EXCEPT that part, maybe I wouldn’t have made all those promises. Well, cut to later that night. They roped everything off after the fireworks, waiting for most Guests to leave. When they dropped the rope, we rushed to Toy Story Mania in what could only be described as a stampede. We weren’t able to do it during the day, so that was our chance. And apparently, everyone was thinking the same thing. But we managed to walk right in, pretty much no wait. We rode the attraction, loved it, and were ready to return to the resort. And that’s when we walked by Star Tours. I saw it had no wait as well, so I asked Peter if he wanted to try another go and maybe catch the podrace. He said sure, so we went in. Well, Ricky, I kid you not: I don’t know what are the odds for this happening, but we got the EXACT SAME sequence… except we had the podrace instead of Hoth! My boy was SO happy, it was definitely DIsney Magic at its best. And when I heard you mentioning you still haven’t seen it, I was like… wow, my boy REALLY is lucky! 🙂

Based in Orlando, Florida, Inside the Magic was created in 2005 by Ricky Brigante. What started as a tiny web site and short weekly podcast has grown to the multimedia-driven experience it is today, focusing on bringing you all things fun, every day.

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